Method of and apparatus for storage and shipment of solid carbon dioxide



P 1931- c. 1.. JONES ET AL 1,822,626

METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR STORAGE AND SHIPMENT OF SOLID CARBON DIOXIDE Filed April 6. 1929 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR' Charles I. J5me; .fo/ira 3 5ml? ATTORNEY Sept. 8, 1931.

C. L. JONES ET AL METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR STORAGE AND SHIPMENT OF SOLID CARBON DIOXIDE Filed April 6, 1929 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR J. Jones Patented Sept. 8, 1931 UNITED STATES PATENT I OFFICE CHARLES L. JONES, OF PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA, AND JOHN D. SMALL, OF

DOUGLASTON, NEW YORK, ASSIGNORS, BY MESNE ASSIGNMENTS, TO DRYICE EQUIP- MENT CORPORATION OF AMERICA, 01 NEW YORK, N. Y., A CORPORATION OF DELA- wean METHOD OF AND APRABATUS FOR STORAGE AND SHIPMENT OF SOLID CARBON DIOXIDE Application filed April 6, 1929. Serial No. 353,237.

Our invention relates more particularly to the preservation of solid carbon dioxide blocks or cakes when stored or shipped in containers or enclosures having low level leaks through which the heavy carbon dioxide gas from the solid can leak, with the inevitable result of drawing in air at a higher level either through leaks or through the substance of the walls. The necessity for and the dificulty of gasproofing the walls to prevent such leaks need not be referred to beyond calling attention to the fact that the gas evolved from the solid carbon dioxide, because of its great specific gravity and low temperature, is nearly twice as heavy as air and will drain out through low level leaks either through cracks or by oozing through many solid materials used for insulation and even through some materials that are waterproof. Moreover, while the gas itself is a wonderful insulator, any percenta e of air present in the gas has the effect 0 a corresponding percentage of vacuum, in accelerating evaporation and lowering the temperature of the solid. For instance, when bathed in and protected by perfectly pure carbon dioxide gas, the temperature of the solid will be about 110 F. below zero, whereas in a vacuum or when bathed in air, the evaporation is accelerated so that the temperature of the solid may be further reduced some 30 to 40. Thus, the temperature drop between the solid and atmosphere outside of the container is very great in any event and will be substantially increased by air. As the temperature drop measures the rate at which heat will penetrate, the protection of the solid during shipment is a problem, the difficulties of which are greatly multiplied where there are side opening doors, as in ordinary refri erator cars and trucks.

ur present invention has to do with a simple solution of these problems and is specifically illustrated inconnection with an ordinary refrigerator car and is particularly directed to the most vulnerable point thereof, namely, the side opening doors which, while reasonably tight as against ordinary air leaks, are found in practice to be remarkably leaky as concerns cold carbon dioxide gas.

each side of the doorway and extending to a height greater thanthe depth to which the solid carbon dioxide blocks are to be piled, and in an ordinary car a full freight load is not likely to require this height to be greater than 4 or 5 feet.

Such dams or cross walls form two bins in which the solid carbon dioxide blocks are stacked, from which bins the doors are excluded.

The next feature of our invention is gasproofing the bottom, walls and joints of the two basins thus formed, at least to the height of the dam, because experience shows that the walls and bottoms of even the best constructed refrigerator cars are extremely permeable to the gas.

The gas-proofing may consist of a complete lining of sheet metal with the joints and seams so welded or soldered as to constitute in itself a gas-tight basin; or, metal foil with gas-tight joints and seams may be used, also metal foil coated upon and supported by an asphalt base may be used, the seams being rendered gas-tight by asphalt. A cheaper, more easily applied'and in some respects better gas-proofing, may be had by coating liquid asphalt directly upon all of the inner surfaces and into the cracks of the basins including bottom and side walls of the car as well as the end walls alforded by the respective cross walls or bulkheads.

Inside of the gas-proof basin, additional insulation may be arranged in the form of compressed cork, kapok or the like, and this will be necessary where a railway box car is used for practice ofour invention Whether ,or not this inner insulation-is emsolid carbon dioxide.

ployed, the top of the stack will be protected by a suitable lid or a covering as, for instance, one or more kapok blankets. The height of the bin or basin should be suflicient so that the top covering or blanket will be submerged in the body of heavy gas which is retained in the basin by the gas-proofing, but this is not a necessity.

The above and other features of our invention will be more evident from the following description in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which Fig. 1 is a more or less diagrammatic view showing in longitudinal section a railway car with a side opening door having our invention applied thereto; and

Fig. 2 is a horizontal section on the line 22, Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 shows a modified form of the bin construction in longitudinal section.

The transportation container 1 may be taken as a refrigerator car of ordinary modern construction, having side opening doors 2, 2, that open down substantially to the level of the floor and which, as above noted, are fairl tight as concerns air, but in practice are ound to be very seriously leaky as con.- cerns cold carbon dioxide gas. Moreover, theinsulating material of the entire car body and of the door are extremely permeable so that in practice the gas leaks out, drawing in air so that the percentage of air within the car is surprisingly great even when the gas is supplied by full weight car load of the As applied in this particular relation, the bulkheads 3, 3, of suificient strength to retain the cargo, are built entirely across the car so as to leave a sort of hall or alley 4, which is utilized by the workmen for loading and unloading the car and also forming the ends of the car into two rectangular bins of which the front walls 3, 3, afforded by the bulkhead need be only of the height necessary to retain a weight of solid carbon dioxide blocks that will constitute a standard load for the car.

It will be understood that cars of this type are approximately 36 to 40 feet long by about 8 feet wide by 8 feet high, and the doors 2 are commonly about 8 feet wide. Consequently the bins may be, say, 14 to 16 feet long by 8 feet wide, and as solid carbon dioxide blocksmay weigh approximately 70 to 90 or 95 pounds per cubic foot, the

. car

bulkheads 3 need not be over 3 or 4 feet in height in order to take care of an ordinary oad shipment.

The gas-proofing of the entire interior of the bins or basins is indicated at 5, 5; the insulation if used may be inside of the waterproofing as at 6, 6,'and the interior is filled with layers of superposed blocks 7, 7 8, 8, 9, 9, etc., as many as necessary to form a stack of the desired height. The protecting covering or coverings as, for instance,

kapok blankets 10, 10, are spread over the topmost layer, being in all cases preferably below the level of the bulkhead or dam 3 so as to be submerged in the cold dry gas which is held in the basins by gravity. These blankets protect the solid from eddying currents of air and also operate to oppose spill ing of the heavy gas over the top of the dam by its momentum, when the car is suddenly stopped or started.

In actual practice of the invention, finely subdivided solid carbon dioxide in the form of snow orcrushed fragments of cakes that may be broken in lading may be spread over the top layer of the blocks, or may be used to replace blocks at the corners or edges, where they will evaporate more readily than the blocks, thereby preserving the shape of the latter, as set forth more fully in our application Ser. No. 353,238;

While we have described the lading of the car as consisting entirely' ofblocks of solid carbon dioxide, it is evident-that; the same construction would be equallyuseful where part, or most of it consists of Herefrozen products to be protected and refrigerated by the solid carbon dioxide.

From the above, it will be evident that the invention is capable of being practiced with almost any degree of elaboration, including if not fitted to the Walls of a chamber or car. i

A gas-tight metal shell, 5a, suitable for use in a car or room may be tin, lock jointed and soldered at the edges, after the manner of a tin roof. The insulation 6a may consist of two layers of cork board, each, sa 3 inche thick, laid in hot asphalt. Aroun the wal s of the car, the top of the insulation may be finished oil with timbers 35, held by angle irons 36. To protect the insulation on the side walls, galvanized sheet iron 30, may be secured to timbers 35, as by a heavy steel strip 31, at the top; and, at the bottom, by bending each strip of the galvanized iron at a right angle to form a floor portion 32. The protective sheet iron does not have to be laid gastight, because it is desirable to have the gas permeate the insulation.

The floor may be protected and its upper surface stiffened to properly distribute the weight of the loads on the cork by a flooring consisting of cross boards 33 which may be yellow pine, say, 1% inches by 6 inches with 4 inch spacings. These lower boards may be groutedin hot asphalt after which a layer of similar boards 34 may be laid cross-wise 37, 37, 37, which may be, say, 4 inch by 6 inch yellow pine. On the inner face of these timbers are nailed heavy tongue and groove jointed boards, say 1% inches thick. Preferably, there is a similar outer board face secured in the same way and anchorage of the ends of the bulkhead is efiected by means of a cleat 38, one secured to each of the walls of the car. The top of the bulkhead is protected by an iron sheet or plate 39 of suitable thickness. The interspaces within the bulkhead are preferably filled with kapok or cork insulation 40. In a particular case, the above described bulkhead was 51 inches high and the other parts proportional so that the bin would accommodate 4: superposed layers of 10-inch cubes of the solid carbon dioxide, but obviously dimensions and proportions may be varied indefinitely.

We claim:

1. A car, truck or the like, having side opening doors and means adapting it for storage of solid carbon dioxide, said means including transverse bulkheads dividing the car into a transverse passage, extending between the doors and storage spaces in the ends of the car, each constituting a bin accessible through the top only and a gas-tight lining for each bin whereby carbon dioxide gas therein, issubstantially prevented from escape except through the 0 en top thereof.

2. A car, truck or the li e, having side opening doors and means adapting it for storage of solid carbon dioxide, said means including transverse bulkheads dividing the car into a transverse passage, extending between the doors and storage spaces in the ends of the car, each constituting a bin acces sible through the top only, the bottom and side walls of the car and the bulkhead being gas-proofed to a height above the level of the cargo to be placed in said bins.

3. A car, truck or the like, having side opening doors and means adapting it for storage of solid carbon dioxide, said means including transverse bulkheads, dividing the car into a transverse passage, extending between the doors and storage spaces in the ends of the car, each constituting a bin accessible through the top only, the bottom and side walls of the car and the bulkhead being gas-proofed to a height above the level of the cargo to be placed in said bins by a gas tight coating of asphalt or the like.

t. A refrigerant storage room having a side-opening door and having means adapting it for storage of solid carbon dioxide at a low level therein, said means including a dam or bulkhead separating the floor space into a door space and a storage space, the bulkhead extending to a height permitting access to the storage space over the top thereof and means substantially preventing escape of carbon dioxide gas from said storage space except by overflowing the top of said bulkhead.

5. A refrigerant storage room having as side-opening door and having means adapting it for storage of solid carbon dioxide at a low level therein, said means including a dam or-bulkhead separating the floor space into a door space and a storage space, the bulkhead extending to a height permitting access to the storage space over the top thereof and means substantially preventing escape of carbon dioxide gas from said stora e space except by overflowing the top of sald bulkhead, blocks of solid carbon dioxide closely stacked in layers in said bins and a flexible insulating covering spread over the topmost layer.

6. A car, truck or the like, having side opening doors and means adapting it for.

storage of solid carbon dioxide, said means including transverse bulkheads dividing the car into a transverse passage, extending between the doors and storage spaces in the ends of the car, each constituting a bin accessible through the top only, the bottom and side Walls of the car and the bulkhead being gas-proofed to a height above the level of the cargo to be placed in said bins, blocks of solid carbon dioxide closely stacked in layers in said storage spaces and a flexible insulating covering spread over the topmost layer.

7. The method of handling a cargo including cakes of solid carbon dioxide during transit in a car or truck having a side opening door extending downwardly to a level below the surface of the cargo, which comprises eiiecting the formation of a car 0 zone terminating adjacent but substantial y free from communication in a direct lateral direction with an open space in the car or truck communicating with the door opening by establishing a dam substantially impermeable to carbon dioxide gas alongside of said-open space, placing a cargo including solid carbon dioxide on the side of said dam opposite to the open space, and permitting the sublimation of the solid carbon dioxide to evolveegas and submerge the solid carbon dioxide in a bath of its own sublimed carbon dioxide gas.

8. The method of handling a cargo including cakes of solid carbon dioxide during transit in a car or truck having a side opening door which comprises efieeting the formation of a cargo zone substantlally gastight except for the upper part thereof, the cargo zone terminating adjacent but substantially free from communication in a direct lateral direction with an open space in the car or truck communicating with the door opening by establishing a dam alongside of said open space and applying asphalt or the like to the bottom and walls defining the area of the cargo zone, placing a cargo including solid carbon dioxide in the cargo zone, and permitting the sublimation of the solid carbon dioxide to evolve gas and submerge the solid carbon dioxide in a bath of its own sublimed carbon dioxide gas.

9. The method of handling a cargo in a car or truck having oppositely disposed side opening doors extending downwardly to a level below the surface of thecargo which comprises eflecting the formation of a passage-way between the doors and the formation of cargo zones on opposite sides of the passage-way with the cargo zones being substantially free from communication in a direct lateral direction with the space of the passage-way, said cargo zones and passageway being formed by establishing a dam substantially impermeable to carbon dioxide gas between the passage way and each of the cargo zones, placing a cargo of cakes of solid carbon dioxide in the cargo zones, and permitting the sublimation of the solid carbon dioxide to evolve gas and submerge the cakes of solid carbon dioxide in a bath of their own sublimed carbon dioxide gas.

10. The method of handling a cargo in a car or truck having oppositely disposed side opening doors extending downwardly to a level below the surface of the cargo which comprises effecting the formation of a pas sage-way between the doors and the formation of cargo zones on opposite sides of the passage-way with the cargo zones being substantially free from communication in a direct lateral direction with the space of the passage-way, said cargo zones and passageway being formed by establishing a dam substantially-impermeable to carbon dioxide gas between the passage-way and each of the cargo zones, applying asphalt or the like to the bottom and walls defining the area of each of the cargo zones to render them substantially impermeable to carbon dioxide gas, placing a cargo of cakes of solid carbon dioxide in the cargo zones, and permitting the sublimation of the solid carbon dioxide to evolve gas and submerge the cakes of solid carbon dioxide in a bath of their own sublimed carbon dioxide gas.

' 11. The method of protecting solid carbon dioxide in a chamber having a side opening door extending downwardly to a level below the surface of the cargo which comprises effecting the formation of a cargo zone terminating adjacent but substantially free from communication in a direct lateral direction with an open space in the chamber communicating with the door opening by establishing a dam substantially impermeable to carbon dioxide gas alongside of said open space, ..placing cakes of solid carbon dioxide on the side of said dam opposite to the open space, placing a blanket of insulating material over 

